February 12, 2009

With which all 100 will take individual, less company-morale-reinforcing Caribbean resort holidays.*

The paper was flooded with hundreds of calls and e-mails from readers in response to news about the trip.

Some referred to Puerto Rico as a "foreign country."

This one caught my eye too:

What's absurd is how here we have yet another case where the media is running away with a story because they know the uneducated public will eat it all up. For those of you who are making preemptive conclusions without knowing the facts, let me fill you in.

There is a difference between the bailout that everyone is raging about and the capital purchase program that Associated in fact participated in. The difference is that the capital purchase program is one in which taxpayer dollars were spent to make HEALTHY investments in banks that are well capitalized. The return on the taxpayer's investment is 5%. AND in the event the bank fails, the taxpayer's investment has been collateralized by 3 times the amount in real estate. It was merely a way to help banks start lending money again to people who need it. It has been ABUSED by the mega institutions who could qualify and for them, I will join you in disgracing them.

But not this small hard working midwest bank. Put yourself in the shoes of the personal bankers, the bank managers, the tellers, the back room people who never get any recognition — would you want your hard earned trip to be pulled from you even though the bank turned a profit and you got your job done? I think not.

It didn't catch many other eyes though, apparently.

* A pat on the back, says David Haynes, is all the 100 should get, "especially after months of arrogance by" . . . all those other non-Associated Bank banks. Yes, that makes tremendous sense.

Ja, KR, but it'd be nice if the canaille were a bit more...focused with the pitchforks. This is how we get toothless, pseudo-populist rants against the fattened cats from finance committee dems, when it was they who unlocked the cupboard.